Accessing a player that has already been created on a page

After an instance has been created it can be accessed globally in two ways:

By calling videojs('example_video_id');

By using it directly via videojs.players.example_video_id;

Removing Players

No matter the term used for it, web applications are becoming common. Not everything is a static, load-once-and-done web page anymore! This means that developers need to be able to manage the full lifecycle of a video player - from creation to destruction. Video.js supports player removal through the dispose() method.

This method is available on all Video.js players and components. It is the only supported method of removing a Video.js player from both the DOM and memory. For example, the following code sets up a player and then disposes it when media playback is complete:

Trigger a "dispose" event on the player, allowing for any custom cleanup tasks that need to be run by your integration.

Remove all event listeners from the player.

Remove the player's DOM element(s).

Additionally, these actions are recursively applied to all the player's child components.

Note: Do not remove players via standard DOM removal methods: this will leave listeners and other objects in memory that you might not be able to clean up!

Signs of an Undisposed Player

Seeing an error such as:

TypeError: this.el_.vjs_getProperty is not a function

or

TypeError: Cannot read property 'vdata1234567890' of null

Suggests that a player or component was removed from the DOM without using dispose(). It usually means something tried to trigger an event on it or call a method on it.

Showing and Hiding a Player

It is not recommended that you attempt to toggle the visibility or display of a Video.js player. Doing so can be particularly problematic when it comes to the Flash tech. Instead, players should be created and disposed as needed.

This is relevant to use cases such as displaying a player in a modal/overlay. Rather than keeping a hidden Video.js player in a DOM element, it's recommended that you create the player when the modal opens and dispose it when the modal closes.

This is particularly relevant where memory/resource usage is concerned (e.g. mobile devices).

Depending on the libraries/frameworks in use, an implementation might look something like this:

currentTime will give you the currentTime (in seconds) that playback is currently occuring at.

var myPlayer = videojs('some-player-id');
myPlayer.src('http://www.example.com/path/to/video.mp4');
myPlayer.ready(function() {
// set current time to 2 minutes into the video
myPlayer.currentTime(120);
// get the current time, should be 120 seconds
var whereYouAt = myPlayer.currentTime();
});

duration will give you the total duration of the video that is playing

buffered will give you a timeRange object representing the current ranges of time that are ready to be played at a future time.

var myPlayer = videojs('some-player-id');
myPlayer.src('http://www.example.com/path/to/video.mp4');
myPlayer.ready(function() {
var bufferedTimeRange = myPlayer.buffered();
// number of different ranges of time have been buffered.
// Usually 1
var numberOfRanges = bufferedTimeRange.length,
// Time in seconds when the first range starts.
// Usually 0
var firstRangeStart = bufferedTimeRange.start(0),
// Time in seconds when the first range ends
var firstRangeEnd = bufferedTimeRange.end(0),
// Length in seconds of the first time range
var firstRangeLength = firstRangeEnd - firstRangeStart;
});

bufferedPercent will give you the the current percentage of the video that is buffered.

Array of Source Objects: To provide multiple versions of the source so
that it can be played using HTML5 across browsers you can use an array of
source objects. Video.js will detect which version is supported and load that
file.